Former England captain Terry Butcher believes international football does not mean enough to the current crop of players.

England tamely exited the World Cup with a dismal 4-1 defeat to Germany yesterday, prompting the start of the inevitable inquest into their failings.

And Butcher told Sky Sports News: 'Does it mean as much to play for your country as it did before? I don't think it does.

Down and out: England were humiliated by the Germans on Sunday

'They don't get paid by England, they get paid by their clubs, so you can understand the manager saying 'don't get injured, you've got a big Champions League match, a big game in the Premier League next week'.

'I don't think our players are totally committed to England as they have been in the past because they have to play these big games for their clubs. 'f you look at the Germans, and other countries as well, it means a hell of a lot to play for their country.'

He also had words of criticism for coach Fabio Capello, observing: 'We've paid Capello an awful lot of money, we've been under his stewardship for what, 18 months now, and we're still playing 4-4-2, which we were playing in the World Cup in 1982.'

Those thoughts were echoed by another former national team skipper, David Platt, who added: 'There is no shame in getting beaten by Germany, the shame comes in the manner in which we were beaten yesterday, and I think Capello has to take a massive slice of that.

England heyday: Butcher reckons it meant more to players of his generation

'For the best part of 90 minutes we were absolutely destroyed by Germany, tactically. We weren't destroyed because of the ability of this player or that player, we were destroyed because Germany had a game plan, they produced it and there was no reaction from Fabio Capello.

'He's got it wrong in terms of the formation. Managers and coaches can get it wrong, what they're paid a lot of money to do is recognise where it's going wrong and put it right while the game's going on.'

But Alan Mullery, who won 35 caps for England between 1964 and 1971, argued:

'Throwing everything on the manager is very unfair, he wants the players to go out and play but they let him down. 'They let the English public down and they let Capello down because none of them played to the level of ability that we know they've got.

'The FA haven't let anybody down. The FA don't play and neither does Capello any more. It's the players that have let the country down.'